March 4, 1968 - Julian Knight

Julian Knight (born 4 March 1968) is an Australian mass murderer. On 9 August 1987, he shot seven people dead and injured 19 during a shooting spree in Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia, in what became known as the Hoddle Street massacre.

Knight is serving seven concurrent sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 years. The judge who sentenced him, Justice George Hampel, stated that there were "a number of significant mitigatory factors" and "the fixing of a minimum term in this case is appropriate because of your age and your prospects of rehabilitation." The Crown prosecutor, Joe Dickson QC, "did not contend that a minimum term should not be fixed."

Now, because of jail closures, Knight is in a medium security prison, but previously was incarcerated in the maximum security Port Phillip Prison in Truganina near Melbourne. He would have been eligible for parole in 2014 except that the Victorian government passed and approved legislation which ensures that he is kept in jail until he dies, is in immediate danger of dying, or is so incapacitated that he no longer poses a danger to others. Knight has challenged the validity of the legislation many times, but lost his final appeal to the High Court in August 2017.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian Knight (murderer) under CC BY-SA 4.0.